BankOnIT Announces Bankers Private Cloud® Threat Mitigation Shield

On 12 Dec, 2016 By BankOnIT

BankOnIT has released the Bankers Private Cloud® Threat Mitigation Shield to help client banks better defend themselves against the rapidly increasing number of cybersecurity risks, such as ransomware, the financial industry is threatened with.

There has been a 600% growth in ransomware since December 2015, with over 56,000 ransomware events in March of 2016 alone.* And with only 47% of ransomware victims able to recover all of their data, it’s also the reason why the FDIC, OCC and Federal Reserve are asking banks during their examinations what defenses the bank has in place to mitigate against the risks associated with ransomware.* **

In a ransomware attack, the user may open an email and click on an attachment or visit a website by clicking on a link that initially appears to be a legitimate-looking invoice, fax or other content; however, it actually contains malicious ransomware code. The ransomware code then locks up files on workstations and servers with a demand for a ransom payment to be made in order to unlock the files.***

BankOnIT has the Bankers Private Cloud® Threat Mitigation Shield turned on for client banks using its Bankers Private Cloud® service offering.

“Client banks that are using BankOnIT’s Bankers Private Cloud® service don’t have to do anything; they are getting the benefits from the service immediately,” Robert Mendez, EVP said. “And, they are receiving this service at no additional charge.” The service is also continuously updated so that banks are protected against new, emerging security threats without having to spend additional money to do so.

The service’s features have been substantially enhanced from previous protections the firm had in place. Bankers Private Cloud® Threat Mitigation Shield monitors emails and Internet traffic every second of the day for client banks and uses advanced algorithms and analytics to detect and mitigate malicious traffic, such as ransomware, in real time. The service uses a layered approach to mitigate threats so that if a threat gets past one defense there are multiple other defenses still protecting the bank.

The Bankers Private Cloud® Threat Mitigation Shield is like a firewall for your firewallTM. It sits in between the bank’s firewall and the Internet, effectively allowing BankOnIT to filter and analyze traffic from the Internet before it ever reaches the bank’s firewall, thereby providing far superior protection than what would be available if the bank was relying on only a single firewall. Additionally, with BankOnIT serving as the Internet Service Provider (ISP) for the vast majority of its client banks, the Threat Mitigation Shield is able to mitigate particularly dangerous threats, such as Distributed Denial of Service attacks and Snowshoeing attacks. These types of attacks are known for getting past a variety of individual security appliances.

The Threat Mitigation Shield is also integrated with BankOnIT’s Virtual Engineers, which was introduced in 2016. The Virtual Engineers utilize artificial intelligence (AI) for taking in data from numerous end points, analyzing that data in real time and then automatically taking action to stop and defend against existing and new threats. This occurs seamlessly without the need for the bank to manage or pay for another security appliance.

“Banks are facing more frequent and more sophisticated attacks every day, and for many banks it’s a challenge to effectively address these threats,” Mendez added. “The Bankers Private Cloud® Threat Mitigation Shield gives bankers another defensive strategy they can use to help them better protect their banks.”